Committee
Health, Social Care and Sport Committee 17 December 2024
17 Dec 2024 · S6 · Health, Social Care and Sport Committee
Item of business
Budget 2025-26
Good morning, convener and colleagues. I am very pleased to be here to talk about the health and social care aspects of our proposed Scottish budget. The budget sees record funding for health and social care, with more than £21 billion for the portfolio. The budget will help to deliver progress for Scotland’s health and social care services, as well as lay the foundations for longer-term reform and improvement. It is a budget for delivery that directly addresses the issues that people are most concerned about and that will support our services, ensuring that they are effective, efficient and sustainable. The budget will empower our reform programme to make those crucial services fit for Scotland’s future. The significant budget allocation includes an increase in our capital spending power of £139 million from 2024-25, as well as a commitment of almost £200 million to reduce waiting list numbers and delayed discharge. We will continue to focus on the reform and improvement of the performance of our services by deploying existing resources more efficiently and effectively, and we will continue to take decisive action to support delivery against the reform vision, which I outlined to the Scottish Parliament in June. The budget will support measures to improve population health and early intervention preventative measures that will be delivered through effective primary and community care services. As such, we will prioritise and increase access to and capacity in primary care, including by supporting services in general practice, and we will enable the use of measures to sustainably treat more patients in community settings. That includes support for the expansion of hospital at home; immediate investment in general medical services to support critical services; general practice stabilisation and other primary care enhancements; additional support for general practice; a critical dental workforce and training package; and a community eye care programme that will transfer patients from waiting lists. Central to the operation of our health service are the health boards, which will receive more than £16.2 billion in total from the proposed budget. That sum includes funding to honour commitments to fair pay settlements for our health workforce. As outlined in the budget document, our commitment to renew and reform our national health service means that we will seek to start work in 2025-26 on delivering a series of new acute care facilities.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Our second agenda item is an evidence session on the Scottish Government’s 2025-26 budget, which was published on 4 December 2024. I welcome to the committee...
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care (Neil Gray)
SNP
Good morning, convener and colleagues. I am very pleased to be here to talk about the health and social care aspects of our proposed Scottish budget. The bu...
The Convener
SNP
We move straight to questions.
Paul Sweeney (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
I thank the cabinet secretary for his opening statement. Health and social care is a huge area of public expenditure for the Scottish Government. Next year, ...
Neil Gray
SNP
I understand Mr Sweeney’s question. It is a difficult situation. Whether it is in the health and social care budget or any other aspect of revenue and resour...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
That would be really helpful. If transfers are known about and tend to take place year on year as a common practice in Scottish Government financing, would i...
Neil Gray
SNP
With regard to social care, we have set out in this budget the very clear transfer that is taking place between my portfolio and that of local government to ...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
That would be welcome. Does the cabinet secretary remain committed to the Scottish Government policy to pass on all health-related Barnett consequentials to...
Neil Gray
SNP
The short answer is yes, and the long answer is that we have gone beyond that. The funding that we have raised from our more progressive income tax policy me...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
Could the cabinet secretary provide more detail on the changes that underpin the significant decline in the “miscellaneous other services and resource income...
Neil Gray
SNP
Yes, I am happy to provide that in writing. That budget line is used to ensure that flexibility is available across the year. I cannot remember the exact rea...
Alan Gray (Scottish Government)
There will be a correction to that when we publish the spring revision to the budget statement. That will correct the miscellaneous budget line, which is the...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
That is helpful. Is it still the intention of the Government to increase direct investment in mental health services by 25 per cent over the course of this p...
Neil Gray
SNP
Yes, that is still where we seek to go. From a cash perspective, we have provided an increase to mental health spending. As Mr Sweeney outlined, there are tw...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
The cabinet secretary is right to point out a real crisis in mental health in the country, with the rise in general issues. He also pointed out that the Gove...
Neil Gray
SNP
I will bring in Alan Gray in a second to provide more detail on that. First, I note that I did not use the words that Mr Sweeney used to describe the situati...
Alan Gray
It is not an actual decrease in the budget. We have put more money into board baselines. It does not show as a separate line in the budget, but it is in the ...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
Where the Government has set clear missions—a 25 per cent increase in direct investment in mental health services and 10 per cent of NHS front-line expenditu...
Neil Gray
SNP
There is progress on both, and we are happy to set that out in a letter to the committee after this session.
Paul Sweeney
Lab
Thank you very much.
The Convener
SNP
We have a couple of supplementary questions on this theme.
Joe FitzPatrick (Dundee City West) (SNP)
SNP
Cabinet secretary, you will be aware of the Audit Scotland report that suggested that there was a lack of a clear plan to deliver the Government’s vision. Ho...
Neil Gray
SNP
I acknowledge the Audit Scotland report, and we will work constructively with the Auditor General on the findings that are contained in it. In June, I made ...
Brian Whittle (South Scotland) (Con)
Con
Good morning, cabinet secretary. In answer to my colleague Mr Sweeney’s question about the allocation of funding, you touched on the fact that, sometimes, th...
Neil Gray
SNP
I thank Mr Whittle for his question, and I understand where he is coming from. There is a balance to be struck around allocating fixed pots of money towards ...
Emma Harper (South Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning. The overall budgets of some territorial boards are increasing in cash terms by 14.2 per cent, but some—including NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and ...
Neil Gray
SNP
Yes, they were taken to address all those things. I thank Emma Harper for her reflection on the investment that we are making in predominantly rural and isla...
Emma Harper
SNP
My understanding is that the NRAC formula, which you mentioned, is under review and could be altered. Where are we with that? When will the findings be ready...
Neil Gray
SNP
The formula is under review, and we continue to review it. It is a very complicated financial system, and unpicking it could have unintended consequences, so...
Sandesh Gulhane (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
Good morning. I declare an interest as a practising NHS general practitioner. Cabinet secretary, you previously said: “The funding outlined will support NH...